Keep up the great work! I bought your series off of amazon looking to fill the Sanderson void….very happy with my decision! I read both books in three days and will keep a lookout for the rest! Loved the idea of Rules! How did you come up with those? Is there a complete list somewhere?

Loved the first book. You do a great job with dialogue which I find is the downfall of many writers of fiction. I’m hoping book 2 is as good and that book 3 will be available soon. I always love finding books like these that are still under the radar of fantasy series junkies. Keep up the good work 👍

I’m a little over halfway through the book, and I’m struggling. Do the characters ever get a clue? None of them question the things you say confuse them about each other. The entire book seems to be a compilation of misunderstandings. It’s especially bad for Rizken, since his lack of understanding, and lack of rectifying his understanding, is in direct opposition to the Rules. I’d like to continue reading, but I don’t think I can if this trend continues. It ruins the whole foundation of the main character. Yes, he’s naive; but the way he was raised and the Rules and Skills he has mastered would have made it clear to him that something was up at the first village, and would have had him frantically seeking to rectify the lack well before he left the first city. If he wasn’t so contradictory and inconsistent, he’d be one of my favorite main characters.

Thank you for writing. One point that you have to understand about Rezkin is that he is essentially suffering from culture shock. While he was raised in the same physical domain (Ashai) as the other people in the kingdom, he was not raised in the same culture or with the same values and interactions. Ashai is, in essence, a foreign country with a foreign culture to him (The Outworld). You also have to remember that he is only 19 years old and (SPOILER ALERT) almost everyone he knows is dead. He has no one to guide him through the transition. He was also trained to believe he knows much more about society than he truly does because his knowledge is academic or gained from artificially arranged scenarios. The first part of the book takes place in a time period of only a few weeks, and learning an entire culture through experience takes time. I don’t know where you’re from, but if you have ever travelled to a foreign country that is very different from your own, you will quickly realize there are significant differences, and even the smallest gestures can have very different meanings. I think you might be oversimplifying the reality of cultural boundaries. I have travelled extensively, and believe me, misunderstandings can propagate for a long time if the individuals involved do not KNOW they are being misunderstood. This is most blatantly demonstrated when someone who does not speak the language smiles and nods even though they have no idea what was being discussed.

That being said, this is a fantasy novel, and you cannot expect things to always be realistic. In fact, this series strongly leans toward an unrealistic hero/antihero scenario, although pretty much all of Rezkin’s physical feats are humanly possible (as demonstrated by real people studied in my research). They are usually not found in a single individual, though. This is also a society in which magic has a strong influence, which is obviously not realistic, although I am working on that!

If you want a story steeped in realism, this is probably not the series for you. I might suggest you look into historical fiction or non-fiction in that case. Otherwise, keep reading and just enjoy the story for its exciting, fun entertainment value.

Thanks for the response! You could just email me if you don’t want posts like this made public. I’m being argumentative about your work, which isn’t always good for sales. I don’t mind if you don’t want my thoughts public.

I have traveled some, and yes even when the language is the same, the cultural and societal interactions are different. I actually learned this better from reading fantasy novels than from my own travels. I’ve read hundreds of fantasy and sci fi, which after reading so many it’s my belief that doing so is why I can be tolerant and understanding of personally repugnant ideas and ways. “You do you, and I’ll do me”. I think what I can’t wrap my head around with Rezkin, is how he can be so intelligent due to hsi demanding, sheltered life, yet so stupid at the same time. This life was incredibly strict, and from how I interpret your writing, it forced him to mature (in some ways) extraordinarily fast, and to constantly think of survival and ways to adapt to situations. To my mind, someone that was raised in such a way would quickly realize that everyone around him was very different from himself. Once realizing this, his Rules for being prepared, using the right tools for the right job, etc, would have had him attempting to figure out why. He was raised to suppress emotion, and to live by a strict set of Rules. Without emotion, we’re left with logic, and the logic to the Rules you’ve listed so far tells me he’s not actually following them properly since he’s not learning what he needs to know.

These books are based in a fantasy world. The presence of magic has affected their understanding of nature, medicine, technological development, etc. Although it is a medieval style society, it would not be considered historically accurate to any time period.

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